Sunday, May 20, 2007

Water, just add boat


Our new slip at Pier 39 is paid for and waiting for Shaba. If all goes according to plan the new marina will be a vast improvement in our west coast boating life. Goodbye to daily 30 knot wind through the San Bruno coastal gap, see ya airport, so long 45 minute drive... hello hoards of brain dead tourists, howdy ferry wake and looking forward to meeting you, yet undiscovered torment.

Friday, May 11, 2007

Bad Service

This morning I am employed in the important business of fixing stupid things. Instead of spending my time making progress in life, I am correcting the failures of the following organizations:

1. Soldboats.com - A vendor I use for boat valuations has mis-charged my credit card
for the third time. I waste a lot time on these idiots but I need the service.

2. Chase Manhattan Bank - They issued the credit card that was misused by Soldboats.
I spent an hour on the phone with their people in India. Disconnected twice and was not helped at all.

3. Gmail - Absolutely no record of half the e-mails I sent yesterday.

4. HP and Microsoft - Don't know where to start there.

5. The liars that sold us this place - The construction below goes on. The floor vibrates from hammer blows, the noise and dirt are endless.

6. Comcast - The phone and internet have not worked correctly since the start. It is causing me problems.

7. Washington Mutual Bank - Can't gain access to my personal account and they have no idea why. They admit a problem but seem to be unable to help me.

8. T-Mobile - No access to my online account, their site is down as usual. They want to charge me for making my payment by phone.

9. Firestone Service center - Installed new brakes in car for a lot of money. A month later and that have started squeaking like crazy.

That was just this morning! I'm marching through many hours of aggravation just to get what I paid for. Here is why so many companies can provide bad service: they don't care and they don't have to care. They can live without me but I can't do too well without them. If I had the time and space to do so I'd figure out how to fix my own damn brakes. Every lifestyle has its aggravations. If I lived on a tropical island I'd probably be harassed by bugs or something. For the time being I will spend the untold hours trying to sort these things out, but... I will also be trying to figure out how to eventually phase out this crap and worry about bugs and stuff instead.